Something special happened in 2011: Jim Henson’s iconic cloth creations, the Muppets, were reintroduced to contemporary popular culture by the team of Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller and James Bobin. The trio crafted their collaborative effort, simply titled The Muppets, as a love letter to Henson’s imagination and characters; it’s a film about what the Muppets mean to them, and to audiences, even decades after they were first conceived by Henson. Even better, the movie proved to be a solid success, scoring high praise from critics and raking in a handsome box office that clocked in at roughly three and a half times its projected studio budget.
Cut to the present, and we have a new Muppets adventure, Muppets Most Wanted, on our hands, and it’s a hoot. Absent of Segel’s participation (as well as the presence of Amy Adams), Bobin and Stoller’s followup tends more toward the delights of a straight-up Muppet romp instead of existing as a heartfelt exercise in nostalgia. The Muppets was designed to capitalize on fond memories spent watching The Muppet Show, The Muppet Movie, and maybe even Muppets Tonight, as well as 1990s theatrical efforts like Muppet Treasure Island. Muppets Most Wanted elects to do none of these things—or rather, any such intentions are clearly secondary—it simply presents the gang with a plot to drive them and plenty of hijinks to keep things lively.
The new film picks up literally where its predecessor leaves off, on the studio backlot where The Muppets’ finale takes place. Left to celebrate their renewed studio viability, our heroes immediately launch into a humorously barbed tune about the common wisdom on sequels: they’re never quite as good as the original (though a hundred and ten minutes later, Bobin and Stoller may bring some viewers to question that particular convention). The message, is simple: The Muppets are back in the big leagues! And they’re going on a world tour, courtesy of the unctuous Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais)! Nothing about this seems like it could possibly go awry until, of course, it does.
It turns out that Dominic has far fouler intentions than he lets on, despite all assurances about his surname’s pronunciation; he’s in cahoots with Constantine, the world’s most dangerous frog (and recent Gulag escapee), who, save for a lone distinguishing beauty mark, happens to be a dead ringer for Kermit, the world’s most revered frog. Their plan? Swap Kermit for Constantine (using guerilla make-up techniques to hide their duplicity), let Kermit get pinched by the Russian authorities and hauled off to captivity, and use the Muppets’ globe-trotting playdates as a cover for breaking into conveniently located museums, all as part of a larger scheme to steal the Crown Jewels.
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